Living in America

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Sloppy times and day dreams at end of the line

Everywhere I looked, the bearded and somewhat admonishing visage of Ernest Hemingway looked down on me.

Pete and I stood in Sloppy Joe’s, which was the aforementioned writer’s favourite bar when he lived in Key West during the 1930s and now has enormous pictures of the man plastered everywhere on its walls.

I took a cautious sip from the bar’s signature cocktail, a Sloppy Rita (Sauza Conmemorativo Tequila, Gran Gala, sour, orange juice and club soda), concerned Hemingway would have favoured the choice of a tougher type of beverage.

We also passed by the house where Hemingway used to live and write, and visited the stone plinth marking the far southeast corner of Key West and hence the most southeasterly point of the U.S.

Cool line from Rudyard Kipling

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.